Spain’s Weird Market Partners With Sitges For Its 18th Edition

Weird Market, one of Spain’s most important industry networking events and project launchpads, is joining forces with the iconic Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival for a special edition of the event, which will relocate from Valencia, where it has been held for the last four years.

This year’s Weird will take place on Friday, October 16, as part of the 59th Sitges festival, an event that has always had a significant animation presence. Organized within the festival’s Sitges Industry section, Weird Market will occupy the Noray tent at the Hotel Meliá for a full day of conferences and networking.

The partnership comes as Sitges is making a concerted push into being more animation-inclusive. Last year, the festival dramatically expanded its Anima’t section, presenting a record number of animated works from around the world, while also placing several titles in its broader Noves Visions competition alongside live-action films. The lineup included major festival players such as Arco, Lesbian Space Princess, I Am Frankelda, and Alberto Vázquez’s Decorado, which had its Spanish premiere there.

Program details and accreditation information will be announced in the coming weeks.

This news comes as a welcome sigh of relief in Spain. It was fairly common knowledge here that last year was the final year for Weird in Valencia, and no news by mid-July about a possible new home had many worried that the event, which, like many cultural get-togethers, depends heavily on financial support from accommodating local governments. Before Valencia, Weird, which went by the name 3D Wire at the time, was held in Segovia from 2009-2021.

“We are an event in constant evolution. For us, change means progress, and collaborating with Sitges this year is a real shot in the arm. We’ll be arriving in the best possible company, surrounded by zombies, monsters, and fantastic cinema. We are eternally grateful to Sitges and its organizers for welcoming us,” said Weird Market director José Luis Farias, recognizing Weird’s semi-itinerant history.

Initially a more humble gathering dedicated to local animation, comics, gaming, and other related fields, Weird has become one of Spain’s most important meeting points for established animation professionals and newcomers alike, bringing together creators, producers, distributors, broadcasters, and other industry figures.

Recent high-profile projects such as Alberto Vázquez’s 2026 Annecy Paul Grimault Award-winning Decorado and James A Castillo’s 2026 Oscar-shortlisted short The Quinta’s Ghost got some of their earliest public sneak peeks at Weird Market, as did local gems like The Treasure of Barracuda and Conej Steps Out. Last year’s edition welcomed 420 accredited attendees and generated 630 scheduled meetings.

The Sitges partnership should give Weird Market access to a significantly broader audience than it would typically encounter at its very industry-focused events. Last year’s Sitges drew more than 130,000 attendees, a festival record, and now the long-time specialist festival becomes an even more important date on the Spanish animation calendar.